Trojan box sets

when's the housewarming party?

recommended Trojan dub disc: "Johnny in the Echo chamber" The Aggrovators.

Lovers Box - even though it's not strictly Lovers, but really mainly soulful rocksteady and one-drop. Some great Bob Andy, Marcia, Pat Kelly etc and the utterly essential Heptone's 'Our Day Will Come'

Rare Groove Box - the later stuff from 72/73 includes some very good roots and DJ tracks. Worth getting for these four : Melody Maker - Keith Hudson and it's version Big Youth's Can You Keep A Secret, The Eternal's Pity The Children and Cornell Campbell's Girl of My Dreams.

The Rocksteady Box hits all the highlights you need from slowed-down ska, rocksteady and very early reggae.

The Producers Box has some very good and notoften compiled Lee Perry stuff from early Black Ark - Black IPA and the sublime Maxie,Niney and Scratch's 'Babylon Burning'. The Clancy Eccles stuff on this set is also essential, although the Joe Gibbs selection doesn't really hint at what a great producer he would become.

Next up would be both of the Dub sets which are consistently good and the Roots Box. I should also confess a weakness for some of the more commercial reggaethat Trojan flooded the British market with in 72-75, as featured on the British Reggae box, Club Reggae Box and some of the later Tighten Up material. Approach with caution - although I think it's mainly ace.

I'm still not sure about the Dancehall box, and the Jamaican Superstars box is good if you like Jamaica Lovers circa 69-71, featurig early Gregory Isaacs, Alton and some splendid Delroy Wilson. If you like the more soulful side of things get it.

The original is John Holt's 'Ali Baba'. There are a million and one versions around including the two you mention, Treasure Isle All Stars 'Arabian Dub' (anyone know who actually engineered this, since it sure as hell wasn't the 'producer' Duke Reid - Tim H to thread!), and a couple of really wild Tubby's versions 'Borderline Dub' and 'Cut Through Dub'.

Dr. C: I always assumed those Treasure Isle dubs were Errol T having fun, but I have no evidence for that.

The Piccadilly Circus branch of Tower is knocking out the best of Janet Kay for 99p right now, which has its moments. Sorry not to be of any more help.

when they're good, they're very very good.

and the x-rated one is absolutely hilarious. (cd2 of 3 currently on the alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.reggae newsgroup you might still get cd1 if you're quick)

I was worried people would say that. Damn it, it was between "Singles" and "Tighten Up" & I figured I couldn't go wrong with the former...

BUT I APPEAR TO HAVE BEEN LED DOWN THE PRIMROSE PATH.

the rocksteady and revive boxes are just crammed with beautiful, lazy tracks that sound like you're tuning into late-night jamaican shortwave from the 60s. warm summer nights...

i second the recommendations on calypso and 12" too.

The best box is 'Rare Groove'. The Big Yout', Keith Hudson and Cornell Cambell tracks on disc 3 are just amazing. Nearly as good is the Lovers box (even though it's not what us brits would call *real* lovers). The Jamaican Superstars box is worth it for the Delroy Wilson and Alton Ellis tracks, and I also really love the Rocksteady box.

The sound quality - what are you on about people? That's what fucking reggae, rocksteady, one drop etc SOUNDS LIKE!! Turn it up - it's beautiful!

IIRC 90% of discs one and two are fantastic.

On the contrary, thanks to Trojan's policy of endlessly releasing the same tracks I have several tracks which appear on different CDs and also on non-Trojan CDs and when they appear on non-Trojan CDs they seem to be both louder, less muffled and (largely) free of scratches, clicks, pops etc.

(it had to be done)

the ROOTS box is pretty much hands-down the best one they've ever done ... i was pretty hyped for RASTAFARI when it came out, but i listen to it much less than ROOTS because it seems like the majority of it is slightly glossier and better produced - sort of post-roots political reggae shading into political lovers (?!?) ... so is ROOTS & CULTURE going to be the heavier murkier complement to the RASTAFARI set??

also as far as NYABINGHI goes, it's pretty much the official count ossie / bongo herman / ras michael trojan compilation, except instead of seperating them out (like on PRODUCERS) they've mixed them up.

also anybody heard 70s or 60s?? it looks sort of cheesy ... reggae/pop covers are nowhere near as good an idea as they sound on paper (i think i like maybe five tracks off SOULFUL REGGAE ... and the beatles box looks awful ... though soul jazz's "hustle" set was maybe the exception to the rule)

Which would only be a problem if what we already heard HADN'T been amazing.

I only have 2 or 3 of them. They tend to repeat a lot of stuff from other things I have.

'Rudies All 'Round
Club Ska '67
etc.

pick me one :-O

Have only listened to the first CD of it so far, but it seems good! It gets dodgiest with early Beatles material tho, because you're used to those songs being so fast and energy-filled, the covers seem a bit weighty by comparsion.

Got Jamaican Superstars, D.J and the Reggae Duets. There wasn't a lot of choice though.

Trojan sound quality has always been sub par. I'd recommend Pressure sounds or, of course, Blood and Fire's reissues. Trojan simply doesn't take enough time and energy processing the crap out of the old records.

now that Universal are in charge and have reissued Tighten Up volume 1 with extras, have they revisited the masters, and given the music a touch up a la Blood and fire, or are they just pumping out more shelf fillers ?

....?

sorry mark, you asking me to clarify my statement, or bumping the thread hoping for someone to answer ?
i'm assuming its the latter.
i have to say, i think that sanctuary did a great job with the Trojan catalogue.
the packaging was always good (once they got a dedicated design house involved, and the depth they trawled the catalogue
ie not just skimming/reissuing the known stuff, was quite special.
i very much doubt the new owners will put as much effort into their treasure trove.
i would love to see me being proved wrong of course.
subsequently, a major factor for repurchasing anything would be if the universal resissues get a remastering job done on them ..

The latter, yeah.

I got a great 4CD box/book of "Reggae Greats" for £3 at Fopp, this being a Sanctuary/Trojan release. Can't complain at that price, of course, but the sound does seem to be somewhat 'muchbetter' than I remember.

there are about 80 of these box sets. it's overwhelming!

lala is shuttering at the end of this month, so i began searching its archives for a few of these boxes to pick up. the trojan 12" box-set is only $12, which seems like an extraordinarily low price. is it any good? any others (which are all a shade pricier (either $17 or $21)) must-haves?

i haven't heard them all, but my favorites are: Tighten Up, Rare Groove, and Lovers

was actually just checking out the jamaican r&b set. sounds good!

amazed at how much quality reggae was made in such a short time, and how much remains relatively undiscovered.

i have like 25 of these, they're all good. get the dub ones and the roots ones to start. 12" one and producers series one worth checking out too

also the rockers and upsetter boxes

i wonder why the 12" set is less expensive than the others? it's true on lala and 7digital.

anyway, yeah. sounds solid. i enjoyed john holt's version of you'll never find (another love like mine) far more than i was expecting to. it runs long, but he gives it a vaguely menacing edge that suits the song very well.

yep, really like his version of that.
2nd the dub sets recommendation. only caveat is that the lack of fidelity esp on the low end that's present on all these sets doesn't serve dub well.

i suppose that's because the tracks are from "deep in the vault" and weren't well-preserved?

i wonder why the 12" set is less expensive than the others?

12" = vocal cut mixed w/ dub into one long track, prob not as popular to the avg listener

the tennors' re-imagining of simon & garfunkel's the only little boy in new york, renamed weather report on the trojan suadehead box set, is f---g amazing. the lilting sway of the chorus kind of trumps the flaccid, tho very pretty, original chorus.

http://www.amazon.com/Rock-Steady-Classics-Best-Tennors/dp/B00000AGNR

^great album. shame it's out of print. ernie's doesn't even have it.

Ernie's has the cassette version for 50 cents! They had the CD for cheap for like a million years.

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/8613369/Dj+Derek+289393457_f2f8490be3.jpg

wound up getting the 12" box-set and the suadehead box-set. also found good prices on other reggae at lala:

• george faith, to be a lover ($6)
• ijahman levi, haile i hymn ($3)
• justin hinds & the dominoes, jezebel ($5)
• johnny clarke, rockers time now ($6)

These Trojan sets were always an awesome deal. The only downside is that after you buy a few of them it all gets a little overwhelming. If someone told me the entire collection was just the same 15 or so discs of Jamaican music (a mere five of these boxes) mixed up in different orders, I'd almost be tempted to check.

yeah, i'm getting the "overwhelming" point already. my itunes posts album covers for every artist on a compilation, and that means i have a lot of images of these box sets dotting the landscape of my cover images.

all 4 of those albums are pretty good

just picked up "skinhead reggae", it is pretty much the shit